A quick lighting question.

JDS · #1 12/26/2007, 06:58 PM

Is it possible to keep S. Gigantea under 8 54w t5 in a 90 gallon tank? Or should I go back to using my MH lights.

wan 2 B reef'in · #2 12/28/2007, 12:36 AM

I may be wrong on this but, if you are running 432watts of T5, I don't think you'll have any problems.

Unfortunately I'm no expert, but I still think that should be bright enough.

littleshark · #3 12/28/2007, 01:04 AM

Those are a harder species of anemone to care for. I would recommend using MH than T5 for that species if you can.

phender · #4 12/29/2007, 12:13 AM

Its not like people have done controlled experiments on the best lighting for S. gigantea. Most people that have been successful have used 250-400 watt metal halides.

I don't know if enough people have tried to keep S. gigantea under T5s for us to have an educated opinion. The hardest part is finding one healthy enough to last the first month or so even with ideal lighting.

I am currently trying a small green gigantea in a 16" tall tank with 4-54 watt T5s. Its only been a week so far. I figure if the lights can bring the purples and blues back to browned out sps, it is probably good enough for a gigantea. The problem is, it will take about 6 months to find out.

In my opinion, I think you have a good shot with 8-54 watt T5s, as long as the anemone isn't more than about 18" below the surface.

Do you already have the anemone, or are you searching?

JDS · #5 12/29/2007, 06:50 PM

Thanks to everyone who responded. I think I am going to go back to metal halide for now. Just because the last one I had was under MH and did quite well. So I'm a little leery of using t5 with such a deep tank.

I just got two carpets in yesterday, one blue and one green. The mouth on the green was a little bit opened. I really can't see the mouth on the blue one the away its positioned. I will have pics shortly.

Grunt · #6 12/29/2007, 07:07 PM

If you had room in the hood you could always run both.
Well at least T5's for the actinic, couldn't hurt to try.

Can't wait to see pics.
Cheers

JDS · #7 12/30/2007, 09:56 PM

Heres the two carpets I got fryday.the blue on looks like its doing better than the green one but I cant see its mouth IM crossing my fingers on the green it doesn't look to good. I put my MH back on with two blue+ T5 .now all I can do is what and see what happens.

Shot with DSC-S60 at 2007-12-30